yes, it does, on assembled kits most of the time gearparts fail first, canopys yellow. i have an F-4 kit (revell) from the seventies unassembled, always in box and still the plastic is more brittle than a new kit

wings and fuselage temporarily joint. there is a locating spar inside and a bulkhead in the middle to keep everything square. glue is now drying overnight, then i will drill locating pins into the wings from the inside
011 by karl holubar, auf Flickr
012 by karl holubar, auf Flickr

for finding the right spot to fix the wings i think i will construct a spar that also fixes the dihedral of the wings. so next i cut out the wings and the main wheel wells. the wells will be boxed in for strenght and to have a locating point for the spar
010 by karl holubar, auf Flickr

i will construct the main parts first and then start detailing them
these are the walls of the pit
009 by karl holubar, auf Flickr
inserted into the fuselage they give the front part the needed strenght. lower part is the wheelwell/gun compartment
008 by karl holubar, auf Flickr

i want to do WF-17, because it has mission marks and was used on a Mig 15 kill. i dont know the number of the aircraft, as its very hard to find these out. i made an excel sheet with all known planes, their names, mission marks and stars as well as numbers if they are availible. here is the pic:
6083_Night_Wings_USMC_Night_Fighters_1942-1953 by karl holubar, auf Flickr
can anyone read the names? these are not the pilot names (these are known - no pilot names were painted on the aircraft), they seem the be the crewchiefs

last, but not least the references. i collected a lot of pics, but wartime photos are scarce. the restos of the doorguards and museum planes have to be used with a grain of salt, most are later electronic warfare aircraft just painted black.
the books (all very necessairy):
004 by karl holubar, auf Flickr
havent built a full airplane vac in large scale (only 72 and armor), so this will be quite a challenge